Youâre very fortunate no one was killed. In a way, you dodged a bullet. -- Judge Paul Sullivan

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The teen who opened fire at a high school graduation party will be closer to retirement age than graduation when he is eligible to leave prison.

Billie McKinney, 18, will spend 29 to 52 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of attempted murder from a shooting at a graduation that spun out of control when rival gangs squared off on July 14 in Kentwood.

Between 150 and 200 people were at the party when a group of 10 or 12 young men showed up around 11:30 p.m. at a home on Farmview Court SE, north of 52nd Street SE, according to witnesses at the trial.

The newcomers were members of the Bemis Boys street gang based in Southeast Grand Rapids, according to Chief Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker. Already at the party were members of a Kentwood gang.

Becker told a Kent County Circuit Court jury that when the rival gang members showed up, shouting started and that escalated to rival gang member Dominique Hudson punching McKinney in the mouth. McKinney was knocked to the ground and chipped his tooth.

After he was helped back on his feet, McKinney began shooting into the crowd and several people were struck by bullets.

Between the fight and the shooting, McKinney allegedly loaded his gun using a sock on his hand in order to keep finger prints off the shell-casings.

Party-goer Mark Armstrong, who was struck in the stomach and the back, spent four days in the hospital. Another victim was struck in the face and says her jaw was shattered, leaving her with a metal plate, a lisp and unable to taste.

“There’s a lot of gang violence in this community and a lot of people are getting sick of it,” Judge Paul Sullivan said during the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, April 29. “I know I am.”

None of the victims wished to make a statement regarding the case.

Sullivan told McKinney he was lucky he was not facing life in prison on a charge of first-degree murder because that would be the case if the bullets that struck the victims had been moved a few inches one way or another.

“You’re very fortunate no one was killed,” Sullivan said. “In a way, you dodged a bullet.”